­­Let’s say you traded your quiet ho-hum life for one filled with fame and glory. Sure, the dollars that come with prominence in our society are bountiful, but after a while, thorns would start to grow. Lost quality time with those who knew you from the beginning would weigh heavily, intense pressure to excel would build, and even the simple pleasure of “being yourself” would become a distant memory. And then, there’s the unsettling feeling of knowing that one day, you could fall out of favor with the public. Picking up the pieces after such rejection would be crushing.

The thyroid is a body part that is easy to forget about. If it’s healthy, you can’t even feel it! Despite its relatively low profile, the thyroid has a very important role, influencing nearly every metabolic process in the body (1).

We have been discussing bone and artery health with Leon Schurgers, Ph.D. In June, we discussed why vitamin K2 was essential for bone health and in July, we examined why vitamin K2 is also essential for healthy arteries. Both involve keeping calcium in the bones and out of the arteries. Even Time magazine is now reporting that calcified arteries are a major risk factor in heart disease. New research indicates that there is more to the vitamin K2 story. Let’s continue our chat with Dr. Schurgers with a discussion about vitamin K2’s role in brain health.

My first trip to Europe was when I was a young boy and Kennedy was still president. Everything seemed so different there, from the public restrooms at the Brussels airport where the men’s and women’s entrances led into the exact same room to the frothy, thick, hot milk in an almost-too-big tasse that I happily slurped in a small Parisian café, leaving a warm, white smear on my face and in my throat. There were no McDonald’s, Starbucks or ubiquitous American sitcoms like Friends. Life, European life, was an alien bustle and blur that never quite lost its seductive grip on my soul.

I have become so accustomed to seeing negative headlines about dietary supplements that they barely jump off the page at me anymore. But recently, I saw a story with such a brazenly false headline on a news/opinion Web site that I couldn’t help but click through: “Your Probiotic Is Probably B.S.”